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Malinzi Erizefali & Son Moses
Malinzi Erizefali, 70, has been making musical instruments such as thumb pianos for as long as he can remember. His grandfather taught him, just as he teaches his sons and grandchildren. The Basoga tribe are renowned for their fine musical instruments. He now works with his son Moses in Iganga near Jinja in Uganda. For some instruments he looks for old metal scrap to recycle. Instead of using springs from old mattresses, nowadays he uses springs from car seats to make the keys of the thumb piano. |
they hammers metal tin cans into rattle shakers which still boast their former branding. He also uses a nail and hammer to create the holes in some of the instruments. |
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Musisi David
Musisi David is a self taught wood craftsman. His best selling product is the gavel shaped wooden bottle opener that is found in almost every local bar and pub in Uganda. It makes a perfect souvenir for those that like a beer! He can make 30 pieces in one day. He makes a variety of wooden and metal crafts such as lamp stands, ash trays, candle holders and sugar bowls.Musisi David walks proudly but his black stick gives away the fact that he got polio at the age of two. Married with four children, Musisi David supports his wife and children on his craft business. His children are all at school where he hopes they will stay until they figure out what they want to do with life. He is reluctant to teach his son his craft because he is worried about distracting him from his studies. |
He works alone because many employees have stolen his ideas and set up their own business or made substandard products and lost for him valuable customers.
Musisi David’s workshop is in the heart of Kampala. He uses mahogany to make his crafts, insisting that only a hard wood will work. Mahogany is sold widely in Kampala but it comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He enjoys his work but wishes to get his wife a skill such as candle making. His only regret is that he no longer keeps samples of his old designs and he’s forgotten some. |
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Allen
began supplying necklaces and earrings that were made out of recycled magazines and glossy paper in 2004. Allen orginally trained as a social worker and it is at her teacher college that she learned how to cut, roll, varnish and assemble the recycled paper jewellery. She couldn’t find work she found that making jewellery was a good way to earn an income. Allen is a young woman with a good sense of colour and style. She takes whatever cheap off cut factory paper she can get with magazines and posters she finds. It takes 3 days for her to do the whole process from start to finish and when the beads are dry she assembles 20 necklaces per day. |
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Buwembo is a father of 4 chilren. He makes huts using bark cloth and spear grassin which he creatively depicts African homesteads and stories .
He sends his children to school and buys clothing because of his craft.
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Kalongo Prophino and his newphew Paulino Lukyamuzi make bark cloth in the small village of Kanabulemu in Masaka district, Uganda. Bark cloth is a raw material for other crafts such as paintings by Yiga Lugolobi and cushions by Cissy. Quite simply bark cloth is cloth made out of the bark of the mutuba tree. It has been produced in Uganda for over 600 years and has a strong cultural place in Baganda culture as it is used by the royal family, traditional healers and used at funerals. UNESCO has named the material amongst its World’s collective heritage list. Uganda Crafts 2000 ltd was fortunate enough to have visiting researcher Lesli Robertson, an adjunct Professor of Weaving and Textiles at the University of North Texas, write up an explanation of the process: |
“This unique process of changing bark into cloth begins with the removal of the outer bark of the Mutuba tree, exposing an under layer of moist, fleshy trunk. Horizontal and vertical cuts are made the length of the tree allowing Kalongo to use an angled banana stalk to peel away the inner bark. What falls away from the tree is a narrow section of bark . Banana leaves are cut and wrapped around the exposed trunk, keeping it moist and allowing the bark to grow back within a year. To deepen the rust color of the bark; dried banana leaves are placed on top of it and set on fire. Kalongo carefully brushes off the ash, washes it and then wraps it in fresh banana leaves, keeping it moist to be worked”
The next day Kalongo begins creating bark cloth by repeatedly pounding it with a grooved mallet as it was shown to him by his grandfather. “Each carefully placed hit leaves its grooved impression on the surface of the bark, with time slowly widening the bark, softening it into cloth.
“After five hours of constant laborious pounding, Kalongo finishes the cloth...he lays it fully in the sun, pulling it tight while laying rocks around the edges.”
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DOROTHY NABAKIBI
Basket Weaver and trainer. “Basing on my background of not being educated, having given birth at a young age and left neglected by the father of my child my work has impacted me greatly with hope and encouragement which I had completely lost. I used to consider myself a failure. No body respected me in my neighbourhood because I was poor. I did not have anything to do for a living and no one to support me. I started to weave… but out of three baskets I brought, there was only one that could pass the quality test. I never gave up because I had no alternative but to continue learning. I persisted. Today I guarantee you that none of my baskets can be rejected |
“My work enabled me to earn and to sustain myself and my family. I educate my four children; one of them is now at university. I buy food, medical bills, clothing, and have begun building a house. Being a weaver has made me a responsible and respected person in society. All the negative views of people about me changed since now am living independently which is not easy especially if you’re a woman.
“My job made it possible for me to travel to America to demonstrate my skills. This is a life time experience and I never at any one time thought I could ever get on the plane because I thought only rich and learned people could. All my success is dedicated to Uganda Crafts 2000 and their Fair Trade orders.” |
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